We never once imagined that 3/4 of a century on from the formal ending of World War II, Europe would be in the grips of a totally different war. Neither would we have guessed that our own plans to celebrate the 75th anniversary of VE Day, would have to be taken in the privacy of our own households!

But what could be a better way to remember all those who fought and died for us, than to bring out our knitting needles!

During the war years it was considered patriotic to knit, and not just in the UK either. Knitters were called on in all fighting countries, to do their bit. Of course we can all imagine the socks, but even children were called on to knit small blankets or shawls or covers to keep people warm in air raid shelters. A fascinating blog post I read details that fact as well as lots of others in this nicely written piece on knitting in the 2nd World War.

War pictures reproduced from ‘People Knitting’ a book by Barbara Levine published by Princeton Architectural Press.

However, socks are not just the first thing people think of when knitting for soldiers, they’re also my favourite ‘go to’ project. It’s the right size project for travelling, or keeping in your handbag. I always take sock knitting on long car journeys (where I’ll be a passenger)! I also always take it in my hand luggage when flying, although goodness knows when that’s likely to happen again. It’s an economical project. One ball of sock yarn is all you need to give someone a present they’ll truly appreciate. Once your recipient has worn hand knitted socks, they won’t want to wear another pair of machine made ones again. I can safely say that in just under 10 years of knitting socks, I’ve only managed to keep one pair for myself. One. And that’s why I treasure these two pairs, because both were knitted and given to me. A real treat.

I’m currently on my 3rd (yes, 3rd) pair of the rabbit socks that we featured in our Easter blog post. Ridiculously, I hadn’t thought my daughters would read that post, and then start texting that they really wanted the rabbit socks…. I have two daughters, but I know my eldest son’s girlfriend would also like them - and she’s too polite to text and ask - so… 3 pairs.

Those of you who already knit socks will know the addictive pleasure in making them. But we hear so many of our customers say they’d love to try, but they look too difficult. Truly truly, they aren’t. The trick is to follow the basic pattern as it’s written. Don’t try and think you’re missing something - it really is as simple as it sounds in the pattern. One ball of sock yarn, and a set of 2.5mm DPNS (and they’re not scary) together with a free copy of the pattern is all you need. If you order the yarn and needles separately, just drop us a message asking us to include a free copy of the basic sock knitting pattern in with your order. We are now offering a Pot Luck Sock Kit with or without needles, click here for more details. Remember to use the Stay At Home code of C20 to get free delivery on orders over £20.

Enjoy your VE Day celebrations and do let us know what you’re doing to celebrate in your own household. Here, we’ll be having a BBQ for 2, followed by trifle for 2, and I’ll be knitting rabbit socks……..

Boo